By Dr Joseph Hawkins, consultant in palliative medicine Woking and Sam Beare Hospice and honorary consultant at St Peter’s Hospital; Surrey, England In the steppes of Kazaghstan a very special launch is happening- the British space craft: End of Life Services by Astroscale is due to start its mission of clearing defunct satellites from earth […]
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Let’s talk about advanced cancer prognosis
By Dr Helen Kerr, Senior Lecturer, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Queen’s University Belfast Sara Mone, Staff Nurse, Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast Correspondence to: Dr Helen Kerr, h.kerr@qub.ac.uk For individuals with advanced cancer, being aware of their prognosis will often mean being aware of a terminal prognosis or shortened life expectancy. Individuals with advanced […]
What now for assisted hydration?
By Dr Arjun Kingdon, Academic Clinical Fellow & ST5 in Palliative Medicine Article reference: Kingdon A, Spathis A, Brodrick R, et al, What is the impact of clinically assisted hydration in the last days of life? A systematic literature review and narrative synthesis, BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care, 2021;11:68-74. It’s hard to forget the furore […]
Efficacy and safety of pharmacological cachexia interventions: systematic review and network meta-analysis
Article reference: Saeteaw M, Sanguanboonyaphong P, Yoodee J, et al, Efficacy and safety of pharmacological cachexia interventions: systematic review and network meta-analysis, BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care 2021;11:75-85. Authors: Nathorn (Nui) Chaiyakunapruk, University of Utah Health Manit Saeteaw, Ubon Ratchathani University Kaitlyn Craft, University of Utah Health Cachexia is a syndrome that causes body weight […]
New guidance published on assessing patients in an ambulance
by BMJ Blog News The UK’s Royal College of Physicians has published new ethical guidance for frontline staff dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, supported by more than a dozen other health organisations. Members of the RCP’s Committee on Ethical Issues in Medicine developed the guidance, which is supported by nine other Royal Colleges and […]
“Coronafrisur”- Over one thousand new words added to German language in light of covid pandemic
by BMJ SPCare Blog Team Over 1,200 new words that have been added to the German lexicon in the last year, according to the Leibniz Institute for German Language. If you are “coronamüde” you would mean you’re feeling fatigued of the whole covid-19, situation, although in theory you could also be suffering from long covid […]
The Plan S initiative
What is Plan S? Launched in 2018, Plan S is an initiative for full and immediate open access publishing supported by cOAlition S. This initiative requires that from 2021, scientific publications that result from research funded by public grants must be published in compliant open access journals, platforms or repositories. cOAlition S are a group […]
Academic Supportive Oncology Fellowship
By Professor Declan Walsh, Hemby Family Endowed Chair in Supportive Oncology, North Carolina, USA The Department of Supportive Oncology at the Levine Cancer Institute (LCI) is seeking a Fellow to complete a comprehensive post-graduate academic year in their internationally recognized center for supportive care in cancer. About the Fellowship: • Train to become a next […]
Unexplained 7-fold variation in euthanasia rates across The Netherlands
Findings may relate to underuse, overuse, or even misuse, say researchers There’s a 7-fold unexplained variation in rates of euthanasia across The Netherlands, reveals an analysis of health insurance claims data, published online in the journal BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care. It’s not clear if these differences relate to underuse, overuse, or even misuse, say […]
Slipping Through the NET
A blog by patient Sally Jenkins, Cardiff, UK Palliative versus end of life care, we all know they’re not the same, but even so, they’re often used synonymously. Nowhere is the need to distinguish between them more pressing than in the management of neuroendocrine cancers, known as NeuroEndocrine Tumours, or ‘NETs’. Arising from unusual neuroendocrine […]